This invention relates to a numerical control device for controlling a plurality of controlling objects in a parallel mode.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a conventional numerical control device for controlling the operation of a plurality of objects to be controlled in a parallel mode according to a plurality of machining programs. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 and 6 designate a machining program file for a first system and a machining program file for a second system which store machining programs of the first system and a machining program of the second system, respectively; 2 and 7, a reading operation control section of the first system and a reading operation control section of the second system, which operate to read the machining programs of the first and second systems from the first and second machining program file 1 and 6, respectively; 3 and 8, a control instruction conversion section of the first system and a control instruction conversion section of the second system, which operates to convert the machining programs of the first and second systems, which have been read as described above, into control instructions, respectively; and 4 and 9, a control instruction outputting sections of the first and second systems, which operate to output control instructions according to their operating conditions, respectively; and 5 and 10, drive sections of the first and second systems which operate to drive the objects, respectively.
Further in FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 designates a setting unit for setting the outputting of the machining program files 1 and 6; 12, a setting inputting section for inputting the contents set by the setting unit 11; 13, an output data file forming section which, according to the contents inputted by the setting inputting section 12, reads the first system's machining program file 1 and the second system's machining program file 6, to form an output data file 14; 15, a data file outputting section for outputting the output data file 14; and 16, an output unit such as a printer.
The control instruction outputting section 4 of the first system and the control instruction outputting section 9 of the second system are so designed that, when control instructions include queuing instructions, the outputting is delayed until the queuing instructions come to the control instruction outputting section 9 of the second system and the control instruction outputting section 4 of the first system.
The operation of the numerical control device thus organized will be described. When the reading operation control section 2 of the first system reads one block of the machining program of the first system from the machining program file 1 of the first system, the control instruction conversion section 3 of the first system interprets and converts it into a readily controllable form. In succession, the control instruction outputting section 4 of the first system applies the control instruction to the drive section 5 of the first system according to the operating conditions such as start and stop of the object to be controlled. Similarly, when the read control section 7 of the second system reads one block of the machining program of the second system, the control instruction conversion section 8 of the second system interprets and converts it into a readily controllable form. Then, the control instruction outputting section 9 of the second system applies the control instruction to the drive section 10 of the second system according to the operating conditions such as start and stop of the object to be controlled. Thus, the objects to be controlled by the first and second systems can be operated in a parallel mode.
The machining program files 1 and 6 of the first and second systems are outputted to the output unit such as a printer as follows. When the outputting of machining program file data is set by the setting unit 11, the contents thus set are applied to the setting inputting section 12 so as to start the operation of the output data file forming section. The output data file forming section 13 first reads the machining program file 1 of the first system to store in the output data file 14. After all the machining program file of the first system has been stored, then the output data film forming section 13 reads the machining program file 6 of the second system to store in the output data file 14 in succession to the machining program file of the first system. In this case, the machining program files are stored with the contents maintained unchanged in order. After the files have been stored, the data file outputting section 15 applies the output data files to the output unit 16 such as a printer.
In this case, the output unit 16 provides an output for instance as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, reference characters B1 designates the title of the machining program of the first system; B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6, instructions of the first system; B7, the ending code of the machining program of the first system; B8, the title of the machining program of the second system; B9, B10, B11, B12, B13 and B14, instructions of the second system; and B15, the ending code of the machining program of the second system. The instructions B3 and B12 are used for the queuing of the first and second systems.
The conventional numerical control device, being designed as described above, suffers from the following difficulties. When the machining program files 1 and 6 are applied to the output unit 16 such as a printer, the machining programs of the first and second systems are applied in a series mode as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, it is rather difficult to detect how the first and second systems are operated in a parallel mode, and it is impossible to detect at a glance where the queuing instructions occur in the first and second machining programs which are executed in a parallel mode.